


Pepsicola & Coffee

by CobaltJellyfish



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Descriptive wounds, Loss of Limbs, M/M, Pepsicola
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-11-11
Packaged: 2017-12-29 22:04:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1010646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobaltJellyfish/pseuds/CobaltJellyfish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>/THIS WORK IS UNFINISHED, AND PROBABLY WILL REMAIN SO FOR ALL ETERNITY, MY APOLOGIES/ John gets over a rough breakup with Rose, after telling her about his feelings towards Dave. But the unexpectedly Dave show up in town and then something bad happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Interesting Visitor

John never really liked Rose that much, but things were done and over with them now, so he preferred to not think about the subject much. It had been a long day so far, and the sounds and aromas of the Corner Cafe where relaxing. He had ordered some cheap espresso-like drink, which was always too hot, and a croissant. Shuffling over to the routine seat by a window and outlet, he mumbled a complaint and sat down. Damn, he thought, are they trying to kill me with how hot this shit is?  Regardless, he didn't even care. Explaining to Rose to really feeling the connections he should with her, or any other ladies as a matter of fact, was all that was on his mind.

At Least she wasn't as upset as she could have been. She actually was pretty understanding, and he really owed a debt to her for that. It all was so... frustrating. What was even the point of dating when he couldn’t, well when he wasn’t with- no. He stopped himself, he knew thinking about it would only make it worse, but the flow of images and feelings seemed to swarm anyway out of spite. He felt numb and shaky, and he blindly grasped his cup and took quite a big sip of it. Oh holy everliving shit WAS THIS HOT. “FUCKING SHIT!” He spat and let some drip down onto his shirt.  A low rustle was made as some people turned to look at him with concern.

“S-sorry, I- well sorry it was hot and I…” He trailed off. He brushed his mouth with the back of his hand half-heartedly, only actually removing part of the mess. His gut felt like it had fallen lower than it already was. He was left to put the lid on clumsily and stare blankly at it, holding it so tightly it took some great amount of control not to crush it completely.

It seemed as if he’d been staring for hours, just sitting there. Finally, he managed to bring back his consciousness and admit to himself, it would be all worthwhile, every second would mean the world to him if he could spend it with… him. He adjusted his glasses, well rather blocks of solid glass, up with a shove.

Dave, the whole world seemed to blur and shift whenever he came to mind. He had finally worked out that he was actually head-over-heels for him, even if that still meant he would probably never ever get a chance to tell him. He reached up, clasped his hands, and stretched. No way was he going to make it through that day if he kept thinking about this. The cracking continued and he went on to pop his neck and back turning around in his chair.

“Damn.” He whispered to himself. “I just really don’t know what to do, about this or even what to do today.” He reached over to his arm and set down the backpack that’d been weighing down his arm for the past hour, and opened the main zipper. That day he’d thrown on literally the first clothes he could grab and hoped for the best. One of the roasters squealed in the distance and he looked over to see several employees heading over in its direction.

He hated his situation so much. The last time he’d even seen Dave he was practically to the hip with Jade. He didn’t know if Dave had left her since then, but the thought of it was practically impossible to imagine.

Slowly pulling out the thin laptop he sighed and heaved it onto the old chinsy table he was sitting at. The whir of the startup systems started loudly as soon as he opened the lid, and he reached down to retrieve the charger and mouse. He flicked the on switch and tapped his fingers against the wood while waiting. His shifted his gaze to look around at the Cafe. The line was shorter than the usual, but even from the ways away he was the slow stream of people entering was still visible. The door kept ringing because of all those god-damned bells. Some people went to the lounge on the right of him after getting their orders, some straight back out as soon as they could. He was about to look back down at his computer when he saw a familiar flash of red. Someone with a distinct sway in their walk and confined posture stumbled in, and he thought he knew who it was. Was it him? It was rather unexpected, could that really be Dave? Back here?

It sure as hell was.Nobody else would have the sense to wear that trashy baseball shirt on all occasions. At Least he’d had the mindset to wear a jacket. He leaned a little to the left with an expression of astonishment and confusion. Why the fuck was he here? Wasn’t he staying with Jade up in Rhode Island until January, but it was only mid-October? As he was passing through the door Dave looked around a bit.

He panned to his left and back to his right, oh. He did a double take back and looked straight at John, and perked up so much he nearly jumped. Collecting himself he stopped smiling and gave John a small wave and mouthed “hey.” when he noticed they were making eye-contact. John returned a half assed confused wave back at him and dumbly grabbed his coffee for another sip, trying to calm down his rush of feelings.

“Ow hnnnnnh, dammit.” He muttered under his breath with a groan. He’d forgotten to take the lid back of so it’d cool faster.

He waited for Dave to finish getting his drink and ate some of his croissant. Dave strolled over with a weird smile-frown plastered on his face.  Of Course it was a public place so he had to keep his cool.

“Fancy seeing you here.” John smirked, he would hide what’d happened earlier for as as he could.

“I’d say the same to you if you didn’t live here.” He let out a short laugh. That was odd, he seemed rather happy today, he never really laughed.

“So what, are you passing through? I thought you be around ‘til January, let alone October.” Dave paused his walk there for a brief second, then continued and sat down across from John.

“Ah, yeah.” he mumbled. there was a strange silence and stillness for a minute. He moved uncomfortably in his seat a little.

“Oh?” John was confused; what could have happened? Did he, noooo that couldn’t have happened.

“Yeah I’m here because of y’know, reasons n’ shit.” Damn did his accent come through no matter how far away he’d been for how long.  “Any way, I’ll be staying up in an apartment, near, what was it?” His demeanor totally shifted to something more relaxed. “Runesbridge, yeah.” He practically shouted it, Jesus.

“Oh, thats right next to here.” John paused, his heart felt like it was beating in spasms. “I-I well, its nice seeing you.” The words seemed to hate him. “-here.” He added. Silence again.

“Mhmm.” Dave wasn’t one who liked to leave a conversation hanging like that. “Well hey when you’re finished with your laptop-y buisness and coffee ya should come over. My place is pretty sweet- and we haven't talked in a long while.” John just realized Dave had been stirring his coffee the entire time, he much have been here yesterday or something. He glanced out the window, it’d started raining. Of Course it was late fall and the weather was unpredictable as all hell.

It would’ve been relaxing even if he didn’t feel so much like vomiting. “Sooo,” John sighed as he tried pressing the shutdown button on his laptop as casually as humanly possible. “well assuming you didn’t have a car last time we talked, or any intentions of buying one do you want a ride?” At this point both drinks had cooled off enough to be drank normally.

“Well ya assumed right. Are you done already?” John nodded as he closed the laptop lid. “Sweet. Well it’s not like I’ve got anything to do today ‘nyways.” He finished off the last bit of his coffee and stood up a bit too fast, as much so that the chair nearly toppled over. He seemed slightly off, more clumsy than usual.

“Hold on a sec dumbass, haha let me get my bag ready.” John put his things back including the remnants of his food. He got up and slung his bag over the shoulder it had been on again, and finished off his drink. “Okay so what street is it on?”

“On Venice Avenue, I can point you there- its walking distance I guess.”

“‘Kay. Guess we should head off before it starts pouring, I don't have any umbrellas.”

“I guess? Wait it is a car right?”

“No it’s a fucking tricycle Dave what do you think.” They both laughed and headed out the door.

The car was pretty far back along the walkway. It was pretty quiet as they walked, neither of them really had anything to talk about.Dave shoved his hands into his pockets and looked up at John, and made an odd face. He stopped and reached out. “What?” John said.

“You ah, ya got some coffee still on your face. Here-” Then he leaned in, licked his thumb and brushed it against the side of John’s mouth. “Got it.”

John could feel his face redden. “Oh.” He managed to let out. He looked down quickly in embarrassment, and then tilted his head back up suddenly. “Mine’s the gray truck by the way. So after we get to the outlet take a left or a right?” He had to say something or it would’ve been too awkward to handle.

“Turn left, I think.” Dave said. And they didn’t say anything else until they were well on their way there.


	2. Nothing Much

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It would be part of chapter one if I hadn't wanted to get two chapters done already after the time I've spent on each.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No you're right there isn't any steamy things in chapter one OR two.

The low hum of the heater drowned out the silence only so much, and John’s radio had fried a wire last week. John thought he could make a list of new information for that day; Dave was back, he broke up with Jade, John himself broke up with Rose yesterday, and Dave was even fucking hotter than last time he saw him. “Hey Dave.” He said, not really knowing where he was going with this. “-it’s okay if you dont want to tell me but what… happened, with you and Jade?”

He sighed and leaned on the door rim and put his hand on his face. “I guess I’ll tell you, there no harm in that. We got in a bunch of little fights over time, usually about little things. Neither of us trusted each other with anything either. It was just bound to fall apart. Jade kicked me out after a big argument, and then we agreed to just end it.” He looked back over at John with the most dull and empty expression John had seen in a while.

“Oh well I’m sorry you-”

“It’s okay.” He re-adjusted himself and smirked. John could tell it was a hard subject so he didn’t press on it. “Hey left _, left, YOU’RE GONNA MISS IT DUDE_.”

“Okay I get it!” John veered the car in a near 90 degree turn left so fast Dave nearly screamed. Dave’s eyebrows skewed up and he stared at John like he tried to kill him. “What’s your address?” He calmly said as they entered into the apartment complex’s lot.

“F-121. It’s on the corner, and it takes up the first and second story.” They pulled into the slot numbered 121, and got out. “So how’ve you been lately? Haven’t seen ya since June.”

“Pretty decent I guess. Just got a promotion last week.” John said as they half jogged to the door as it started raining harder.

“Oh sweet. Im still in the family business incase you were gonna ask. By the way how’s Rose? I didn’t get a chance to stop by her place yet.” John shot Dave an uneasy look.

“She’s maybe not her best but she’s been doing pretty good.” Dave shuffled through his pockets a bit trying to find the right key.

“Oh? Is she okay, dude did something happen?” John thought he probably was worried something had happened to her, and thought it was best just to get it out right then.

“I broke up with her yesterday.” He whispered it just barely loud enough to be heard over the rain. He didn’t look Dave in the eyes, he knew he was a really close friend of Rose’s and probably a bit ticked at him. Dave didn’t say anything else as they walked in and took their jackets off in the doorway.

“Pretty nice huh?” Dave made a wide gesture with his arms, he seemed pretty proud of his place. He turned back to look at John, a worried-looking smile on his face. “Yeah sorry. I knew something was up, I pinged her the other day and she seemed weird. But I guess its not really any of my business.” He walked over into his living room, it was smaller than a house but still looked really quality.There were a few boxes still in the corner that had U-HAUL on them. “I’ve got netflix if you wanna watch a movie, it’d be fun- this place has a pretty fucking awesome big screen.” He picked up the remote of the side of the couch and tossed it over. John caught it and stood there not really knowing what to do, he decided to just start with turning on the TV, which apparently had been on nickelodeon last time it was on.

“Dave why the hell are you watching kids shows?” He honestly didn’t care but he sat down on the couch anyway and wondered what the hell Dave was doing.

“Because I damn well can.” A sound of some cans falling over echoed through the entire downstairs. “DO YOU LIKE KID CUISINE?!” He shouted across the apartment unnecessarily loud. “It’s getting late and since you’re over you might want food!” He said in almost a mocking yell. John replied back in an equal tone.

“Yes! Yes I would like some thankyou!” He turned to look over the back of the couch to see where Dave was and let out a short scream as Dave turned up right next to him. “Holy shit you motherfucker.” He laughed a little and looked him in the eye, there was that one brief moment, where he swore time stood still.


	3. Alternian

The TV buzzed, cut and turned off seconds before an enormous burst of lightning could be seen out of the windows, and the boys whipped their heads over to look at it. Dave instinctively grabbed John's shoulder extremely tightly. Waves of rain could be heard over the new quiet. “Hey Dave do you think you could loosen your grip a bit there it-” And then came the crackling boom of thunder that traveled through the entire complex and John lost all hope in having Dave let go after he lost all feeling in his damned shoulder.

“Dave,” He whispered.”Hey man chill.” He loosely grabbed Dave’s hand and placed it from his shoulder to the couch and got up. Dave was rock still and obviously trying to breathe correctly. John never knew dave still didn’t like storms. He guessed he needed to make sure he was okay. “Hey you okay? I’m guessing that’s a no on the kiddie meal.” Dave looked at John but took a moment to respond, but it was still a bit breathy.

“Yeah. I mean no. I mean, yeah, we have a generator that’ll run long enough for us to run the microwave, I’ll go start it up.” He walked at first then ran as fast as he could down the hall to a closet by what John believed to be the furnace area. It took only a few minutes until he could hear the thump and appliances turning on. “Hey turn off the lights, except the kitchen will ya? The last people who used this didn't take good care of it and it might break.” He retrieved the boxes he’d set on the counter  and de-cased them. “Here hold this while I warm this.” He handed John the dessert packets and one of the meals and set the other in the microwave.  John just stood there waiting, while Dave drummed his nails on the counter. The microwave beeped and then John went ahead and put his in himself.

“Oh damn.” John looked at Dave.

“What?” Dave pulled out a half-gallon of milk out of a fridge.

“I fucking think I left my windows open.” John frantically looked around to see if Dave had an umbrella.

“Really? Really are you kidding me? You damn idiot I’ll roll them down for you just wait for your food to warm.” Another, lighter, thunder rolled through. “Give me your keys.” John reached into his pocket and tossed them to Dave.

“Hey be careful dude its pretty harsh right now, thanks.”

“Will be, don’t worry.” He shouted before the door closed behind him. John shuffled back over to the counter with an uneasy feeling, and the microwave beeping nearly made him jump OVER the counter.

He brought the tray out and set it down by daves and looked to see if he had any cups. Just then he heard a faint screeches of wheels, did Dave steal his fucking car or something? Then he heard a different car’s horn sound off and maybe, run into the curve? He couldn’t make it out but it didn't sound good. John ran over to the door and opened it to look out- damn it’d gotten pretty dark. All sorts of thoughts sprinted right in and out of his mind about the worst possible things as he tried hard to see in the thick rain. Suddenly car lights flashed on and he could see... mostly everything. Dave was lying there, on the ground a little way behind the car, which had seemed to have veered into the sidewalk across from John where he parked his car. A lady ran out of her car from the drivers side, took one look at Dave and screamed and didn’t move any further towards him, and frantically looked around. John didn’t move for a second either, he didn’t want to believe what he saw. Just then he heard a loud moan come from where Dave was laying, and saw him curl up into a ball. “Dave!” He shouted now that he finally realized the situation. “Dave!” Every step felt like a slow motion movie. “Dave! Dave are you okay?!” He stopped about two feet from him, he didn’t care right now about the lady who ran him over, or why she didn’t notice him or what she was saying in a foreign language very rapidly. He knelt down and looked at Dave. His shades where shattered just a few feet away where they must’ve fallen. “Dave!” John’s voice cracked as he screamed over the sound of the weather.

He grabbed Dave’s shoulder and leaned him over to see his face. His, face was awful. It was scratched all over, and blood, there was blood coming from his nose and lacerations, but thankfully he didn’t see anything pouring down from his head. Suddenly he breathed inward sharply and let out a screaming moan of angst. He could see the terror and pain written all over Daves face as he heard him be truly hurt for the first time ever. John didn’t want to, but he forced himself to look around to see what had been damaged. No Matter how fast the raindroplets hit the blood from his leg still showed. “Ambulance!” John finally managed to cry out. “Get an ambulance! Call 9-1-1! Please!” John had left his phone in his bag inside. He glanced back at Dave’s leg and nearly puked. It was bad. It was twisted backwards, and seemed to have more than two joints. Oh god it probably was obliterated by how heavy that car looked. The woman ran over to John, refusing to look at the injuries, and thrust her phone at him. She must not know what to dial. She was still speaking something that sounded like German mixed with Italian at a pace too fast to comprehend. What the hell kind of phone was it? It looked like a typical Verizon flip phone, except it was lumpy-shaped and had about fourteen keys with strange symbols on them.  Hell even the screen was odd. He looked back up at the woman with a look of concern and panic.

“What the hell is this?!” He shoved it back at her and got up to head into the house.

“Wait!” So she did know some English. “You wait please! Man under car can go with me please! No time!” Her words were choppy but John got the memo with all the large body-motions she was making. He tuned back to Dave, and only vaguely knew how to transport him. He was breathing heavily, and the blood was still everywhere as the rain tried to wash it away. Dave was gripping his his thigh tightly but that didn’t seem to help much. His leg right below his hands seemed like it almost was twisted off, his jeans were ripped and fractions of splintered bone could be seen peeking from underneath the parted muscles, no wonder he screamed. John shakingly picked him up bridal side with his good leg and brought hi heavy ass up, and moved around to the side of the car where the woman had opened the door. He hopped in and the lady handed him a towel, which he tied around the leg base as high as he could. Dave looked faint, his grip was loose and his eyes droopy. Johns heart seemed to be pounding to the point of breaking and with all the adrenaline he was going to implode. The blood was the only thing he could think about, there seemed to be so much of it. He hadn’t even realized he was crying excessively until they got out of the rain. He hadn’t noticed they were already on the road, heading to what he hoped to hell was a hospital. Everything seemed blurry to him, and the ride to the building seemed to be instantaneous, yet also seemed to take years.

\--

It looked like a medical building to say the least. It was a light grey with tan edging and had a helicopter pad on its highest section. The rain had lightened up quite a bit on their way there and the blood seemed to have slowed, but John didn’t know if it was because there wasn’t enough or if he’d closed it well enough. Every good 30 seconds he’d checked Dave’s pulse. He drearily got out of the car once in zoomed right into a parking slot, and it took a second for him to collect himself enough to start running inside, which the woman was already doing. Once he pushed himself and Dave through the doors he was half-blinded and then saw someone coming at him with a stretcher. He was pushed aside and Dave was off, away to some room he supposed, to have his fate determined. John couldn’t do anything but stand there, so stand he did. For and hour.

Eventually a nurse-like person showed up and made him sit down in a chair that was relatively close to the area Dave was wheeled. He passed out cold and couldn’t remember anything happening after he sat down.

\--

“Hey.” A soft voice woke him up from his restless sleep. “Psst, hey, come on John wake up. I think you need to wake up now.” He drowsily opened his eyes. His head and knees hurt, and his clothes felt a bit damp. He looked up at the person who’d woke him up. She seemed familiar, and she had one of those worried fake-smiles. Then he realized he actually knew her.

“Rose hey.” He managed to whisper back. She moved to sit down next to him and handed him a pair of clothes of his, which he must’ve left over at her house. He grabbed them, but sort of stared at them for a while in a daze, until her remembered. He almost choked. “Where’s Dave is he okay?!” He was in full panic having had remembered his situation, and then became rock still and stared Rose in the eye. “Is he, alive?” The terror was strewn all over his face.

“Yes. He’s alive John please be calm you need to be calm.” She rested her hand on his knee and gave him her best affirming look. “Hey, put on these clothes. There’s restrooms right down the hall to your left.” He noticed she wasn’t wearing the same kind of outfit he’d expect. She had a lab coat on, and her hair up in a tight bun, it didn’t seem right.

“Wait, wait Rose,” He started to get up but sat back down. “Do you study medicine…  _here_? I know you mentioned something about that when I asked a while back, you said you weren’t really supposed to talk about it?” He didn’t even know where he was. Maybe just focusing on changing was the best idea.

“Yeah. We’ll talk later, now that you’re actually here.” She got up and walked down in the other direction if the restrooms, which were labeled “Restrooms” and something other underneath, that looked like the symbols he saw yesterday. Her footsteps echoed down the hall with the taps of her hard-bottomed shoes. John waited a minute, then got up and changed.

When he got back there was Rose, the lady, and some other doctor-esque looking guy standing in front of a door, speaking a mix of English and that other language.

“John.” Rose said when she noticed him coming. “Here put your wet clothes in this basket I can dry them for you.” She really took them from him more than asked. John glanced up at the people. Once he met eye-contact with the woman from last night she looked down. The other guy looked rather tall, he had a very strong, well shaped face and cracked glasses.

“How is he? What’s this institute, where are we? And can you tell me who you are?” He got most of the questions he had running through his head out. They all paused for a minute and gave each other those looks you make when you’re silently debating on something, until the tall doctor-guy gave a nod, and Rose spoke up again.

“Dave’s leg is bad. I’ll tell you that John. You- well you weren’t supposed to some here, but Kanaya over here chose the closest place for him. If she didn’t it would’ve been a risk to Dave’s health. She takes care of the children’s wing over here, she, well she says she’s really sorry. She really is apologetic, and offered to pay for Dave’s uh, surgery. She motioned for him to sit down across the hall with her.

“Exactly what… _surgery_?” John had no idea what they’d do, surgery? Surgery was a weird word for his situation.

“Amputation. I told you, his leg is really, really bad. There was a lot of blood loss, and the muscles were way too detached for us to fix them correctly in the amount of time we had. He couldn’t lose any more blood, he was dying, John. We did what we could.” She was trying her best to explain.

“Wait he’s not dead right? You said he was fine right? Did you already do the… thing?” John grabbed Rose’s arm in concern.

“No, yes, and yes. Dave’s alive. He’s on heavy medication, and there’s something else we’re going to ask him about when he’s healed enough.” John hated this damn anticipation.

“Okay Rose you know what, I’m really sorry if its weird talking to me after, you know a few days ago, that thing, but really just tell me all of this at once, I’m too worried.” He stared her in the eye until she talked.

“Okay.” She said.”So, Dr Zahhak here, he’s an advanced neurosurgeon. And robotics engineer. We’re going to ask Dave if he’d be a pilot for a prosthetic leg that works mostly correctly. He’s done it on animals and it works so there really is no worry. It’s a lot better than living without a leg.” She paused, and finally realized John wanted all his questions answered. “We can’t tell you our exact location. Sorry. But, I  guess you’ll be waiting here with dave for a while so maybe I should fill you in a bit more.” She pulled out a pamphlet out of her side pocket. “Here, It’s what the, foreigners, get if they have to come here. Okay they’re not normal foreigners. How, per-say, you react to me saying Alternion Peoples?” Of Course John didn’t have a clue what the hell she was saying, and she sighed. “I hate using the word aliens.”

“What? Are you fucking with me? Seriously Rose this is not cool Dave’s hurt and-”

“No. No i’m not and thats why your in a weird hospital with weird words all over and a foreign language you keep hearing. John you can’t tell anyone, and neither can Dave. There are rumors of them but the government it keeping it on a low-down. Dr. Zahhak has removed Dave’s leg from mid-femur down. He’s on a lot of pain meds, and you can stay in the family rooms for a while if you want. Come on, I’ll get you some breakfast, It’s already 10:00.”

They went and got some average-tasting waffles and coffee, even though John didn’t eat much. The next two days passed slowly, and mostly consisted of worrying, sleeping, and Rose explaining the “foreigners” and rules and regulations to him. On the second evening, she showed him a picture of  what the leg would look like, but he turned down the offer to actually go in and see it. He wouldn’t go anywhere until he was actually allowed to go talk to Dave, but apparently Dave still had to rest, and couldn’t really feel anything or talk right, because he had barely any feeling in his mouth and was sleeping 90% of the time. He had hit his face pretty hard, but didn't have a concussion thankfully. He did, though, get a clean impact-break in his arm which also had to be X-Rayed and the such. Finally on Thursday, the fourth day of waiting, he was let in and was told to be calm and quiet, because Dave had to be on weaker medication to be in communication condition.

“Hey John. Guess what? My leg’s fucking gone. Gonna get a fucking robot one. How sick is that?” He laughed, and John wasn’t sure if it was the meds or Dave being so worn out because it was a true heartfelt one. His hair was down instead of being gelled up like it usually was, and not covered in blood like the last time he’d seen it. His left arm was in a cast, and only his right leg peeked out of his blanket. His face had a couple bandages on it, but now that it was cleaned up it looked so much nicer.  He wasn’t used to seeing his eyes, a deep red from his variation of albinism, they were like suns from the ironic pits of hell.

“Cool. Glad to see you’re okay.” John walked over a bit closer to him and looked down. “How are you feeling?”

“Currently I’m feeling VOID, causa all these damn meds. must’ve hurt a lot, I only remember laying in the car going here. Oh fuck are your windows still down? I bet your car’s _soaked,_ and those kid-cuisines have gone to waste. What a god-damn shame”

“Sure is.” John said. And then he sat and chatted with dave until Dr Zahhak walked in, and informed them he’d like to perform the nerve-connections with Dave’s leg as soon as possible now that his stump was healed enough.

 


	4. Trolls

It had been a long week, and it all seemed surreal. John was finally getting around to the sense that there actually was a species named alternians, or ‘trolls’, and that Dave’d lost his leg. He’d had spent the last hour in his temporary room crying and trying to accept everything, which he did eventually come around to doing. He hadn’t actually seen any of them except for Ms. Maryam and Dr. Zahhak but Rose told him that this was indeed a hospital for them, so there apparently a lot of them. He was now sitting on his bed, waiting for Dave to be released from the final surgery for attachment, and hadn’t been able to see him while it was going on, and it was driving him crazy. But at least Dave didn’t need to experience the limitations of an amputee at all, considering he’d been in the hospital the entire time. A second later the was a soft knock on the door, which was half open anyway.

“John are you in here?” Roses voice was so soft at times, but always sounded like it belonged to someone twice her age. She walked in anyway, not really searching for an answer to the question. “Hey Dave’s made it through excellently. He’s going through a little rehab to get him used to it, do you want to come with me? I’m going down there right now.” John stood up and had already half-jogged through the door before he replied.

“Yeah. Yeah sure.” He had to twist back to look at Rose before he almost started heading down the hall in whatever direction, not knowing where he was going. After they went down a good flight or two of stairs John hesitated before the door labeled ‘Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy’. “Hey,” He said worriedly,”Nothing’s mangled or anything, right?” Rose giggled a bit.

“No. Hey John I was almost as worried as you, and I can assure you he’s better than he would have been in the normal facilities. I honestly didn’t imagine us all meeting up like this, but hey we’re all fine now.” She diverted her look back at the door and went through, it swinging behind her. John slowly walked up and pushed it open again.

“John!” Dave was across the room sitting on a cushioned bench, wearing rather ugly hospital-administered shorts. He started to get up really quickly and made it about two feet before he lost his balance and met the floor. “Jesus fucking God help me up please.” He sort of hobbled over to the bench and the doctor pulled him up all the way so he could stand, even though he was still leaning on him. He showed the most genuine smile John had seen from him in years.

“So how long are you gonna have to hobble?” He was just trying to lighten up his situation.

“Actually,” Dave said,”This gentlemen here said it would take only a few days with how nicely the nerve sensors and mechanics are working. Haha.” The man actually blushed a little, that was surprising.

“Hey Dave, does it really hurt?”

“Like a damn bitch. But its okay I can take pain meds in a few hours.”

“You’re gonna get really messed up with all of those damn meds dude.”

“AM I ALREADY NOT FUCKED UP LIKE I’M ONE FOURTH ROBOT I DON’T REALLY CARE AT THIS PO-int!?” And at that he had started laughing and soon everyone joined it, and it no longer seemed like anything was wrong, at all.

\--

John woke up the next morning, after he had hung out with Dave and watched him practice ‘flexing’ and walking with his new attachment. Soon after Dave had put on a pair of regular-looking pants, and they were both excited to see that nothing was really noticeable except for an odd limp. Something he’d been dreaming about woke him up, but he couldn’t really remember. He turned over onto his other side and looked around, it was unusually dark. It must have been a bit earlier. He squinted at the clock lightly glowing on the wall. It was nearly 3am, holy fuck why the hell was he awake. He decinded to try and sleep again since he’d forgotten why he had woken up. About an hour later, the images started flying past. He’d relived the scene before but it was bad this time. The car was huge, and he was there, by the side and couldn’t do anything. The lights flashed, and everything was covered in blood. He shouted out for Dave but when he finally had gotten over there everything that he had imagined was actually there, Dave was limp and the marks were right through his abdomen, his insides splattered along the pavement. He cried out for Dave again, even though it didn’t seem he actually did, and he was sitting there, nothing he could do. He turned around, and there was that lady, a little taller with a longer coat just soaked in blood, with a gun. She said something along the lines of ‘Nobody can know, nobody can know’ and it echoed through the scene. She clicked it, aimed right at John’s head and put her finger slowly onto the trigger, and pulled.

John didn’t remember screaming but he found himself sitting upright on his bed, something like the sound of a scream echoing through the tile walls and him, holding his head, sweaty. His breathing was heavy and he was shaking. He looked at his hand, and everything seemed fine. Although he was so off-put he could barely grab the blanket back up from where he’d involuntarily kicked it. There was a weird stepping down the hall, and he heard what sounded like Rose talking to someone. Then he heard it coming closer, and the door open. The room light flashed and It took him a minute to make out fine details.

“John are you okay?” Dave tried to whisper at him put was a bit loud.

“Yeah.” He mumbled with a croaky tone.

“Bad dream?”

“Yeah.” He said again, a little more clearly. Dave sighed and turned the lights off. They were way too bright for any time except midday. The clock on the wall was illuminating the time 4:12am, and John was still struggling to slow down his breathing. He finally felt another tear on his face and realized he’d actually been crying, what a mess he must have looked like in the light. Dave closed the door behind him and crept over toward the bed and sat down awkwardly on the end facing him.

“Hey.” He said.”You’re just here save in a bed. Wanna tell me what it was?” His voice had gone from concerned to a soft whisper. John shifted a bit to put his hands back down and he glanced at the sheets.

“I …… well… it went over your gut, and the lady, she had a gun, and she was angry and I was right there and… I woke up.” He gripped the sheets and couldn’t stop himself from crying again, the tears just seemed to empty out. Hel felt a grip around him, as Dave hugged him tight. They were sitting there for a good ten minutes, and John felt so warm and protected with Dave right there beside him. Dave moved his hand up through John’s hair and moved back a bit, and kissed his forehead.

“Lets get some sleep. Do you want be to leave?” Johns posture and silence was enough for Dave and so he leaned over and wiggled himself into the sheets and turned over. “Goodnight. I’m right here if you need me.” John still sat up there for a while, and then finally settled back down into the sheets. He knew Dave wouldn’t actually sleep until he knew John was. They’d had this kind of thing happen at a sleepover when they were 14. He faced Dave and put the blanket practically up to his face covering himself. Dave _had_ just kissed him on the forehead. John was too flustered to sleep.

“Dave,” He whispered.

“Yeah?” He replied. John had guessed he wasn’t asleep and he was right.

“Thanks for being my friend.” Dave turned over to face John with a weird smirk and started to say something.

“Well maybe-” But he stopped. “It’s really damn early John, c’mon we still got a couple hours left to get some rest.” He stared into John’s eyes for a moment, and then seemed to actually fall asleep. He was really cute when he actually was relaxed. John curled up a little closer to him and didn’t wake up until the morning.

\--

It was finally time for them to go. Dave could walk, and they had talked to Rose and the trolls about aliases and the such, and found out that it wouldn’t mean the world if they slipped up. Apparently the trolls where pretty common. They’d discussed days earlier about some of those extreme cases, were doctor’s like Mr. Zahhak were paid to remove their horns, and the patients seemed to blend in. John decided he’d walk around a little bit, before he left, and maybe get to know what this new kind of people was like. Ms. Maryam said it was fine as long as he wasn’t disrupted, and Dave stayed to get another information-lecture from Mr. Zahhak about his leg.

John had walked around and found himself in the main hall, where the wall were quite tall, and there was a glass ceiling on the top. It kinda looked like a sanitary mall. A few people were walking around, some crying and some running. Some trolls were walking around with stands of weird-colored blood. He’d read something weird about blood castes in one of the pamphlets but didn’t really remember it. Some of the people walking around had tails waving behind them, they were long and fluffy with black ends, and sort of resembled lion tails. He heard faint pattering footsteps trailing behind him and turned around.

A very tiny girl troll was standing there with an inquisitive look. “Hey who the heck are you?” She stated in an adenoidal tone. Her hair was a bit of a mess and she had two very sharp looking horns peeking from underneath it. John wouldn’t have been startled if her eyes weren’t damn red. He should really look into those pamphlets.

“Hi I’m John.” What the hell would he say? “What’s your name?”

“Terezi!” She said in such a matter-of-fact way. She brought a cane from behind her and pointed it at him a bit violently. “Heiress to the Great Justice Bringer Redglare herself!” She snort-giggled and seemed to let her guard down a little. “So why’re you here? E’rybody who’s here’s got something all messed up.” This poor damn little kid wasn’t shitting around. She bounced and swirled around a bit, making her poofy skirt span out.

“My friend lost his leg. And the nice doctors gave him a new one.” That probably was short and simple enough. “What about you?”

“I can see very well and I’m an orphan so I just hang out around here. This place is huge!” Her voice was so piercing and loud it scared him every time she started talking.

“Haha well that’s not very usual. How good can you see then?” He might as well talk to her, there wasn’t anything else to do. He ruffled her hair a bit, trying not to hurt himself on her head spikes.

“Well I can’t see, but I can sense things other ways and it’s really cool because all this red tastes like cherry! And-” She went on about something as his attention was diverted to some odd shadow he caught out of the corner of his eye. Something boxy and black was on the roof- was it there before? And thats when he saw the red flashing light on it. He didn’t need to hear the faint sound of a jet to grab the little troll and run like hell back where they’d been. The walls were shaking with the roar of the engines of it coming in closer, but it more or less seemed to be passing over- by. It was close enough for him to see the guns on it retracting out as he jogged towards a steady area away from it while ignoring her confused complaints. The sound of gunfire pierced the air as he rounded a corner and plopped down low beside one of the concrete walls and covered the little girl with his body. Everything seemed quiet for a single moment, and then there was the roar of fire and noise and debris everywhere. This was not good.


	5. Tune of the Night

He braced himself and the now-realizing-the-situation troll as the floor shaked while the glass ceiling shattered completely. Confused yelling coated the atmosphere as well as more conversation in, what was it, Alternian? The wall behind them was solid concrete and had barely broken at all, and John felt like the luckiest goddamn guy on the planet. Terezi wiggled away from him, taking into the fact that John was too shocked to move, and tugged on his sleeve. “C’mon you dummy! Let’s fucking go!” He was going to make a statement about her language and parents letting her talk like that but it occurred to him that that would be offensive considering she was an orphan.

“Okay!” He said and blindly followed her over near the direction of the physical therapy rooms he had just came from.

“It’s okay guy, Ms. Maryam is really nice and she knows where we can go.” The kid didn’t seem phased at all. They heard what sounded like another plane and picked up their pace a little, but not by much, John didn’t want to accidentally run her over. “This happens aaaaaaall the time,” She stated whilst jumping over a large piece of ceiling. “-ther curperashin, uh cerkeration, uh, crocker corp, hates us so they hurt us. But we hurt ‘em back so it’s okay.” They were almost there he could tell, yet he couldn’t see much, there was too much debris floating around still. Some more shots could be heard, yet it seemed to be not directly at the building. He turned around for a brief second to see a few strange looking bodies jumping down from ropes into the main hall where the glass ceiling had been. They all had very large horns and, by god, bright red and pink skintight suits. If you wanted a less intimidating army you would dress them all in that ridiculous fucking outfit. He was still running and when he turned around he nearly hit Dave with full running force.

“Oof, fucking, oh Dave you okay tha-” Dave picked him up and hugged him so tight he couldn’t breathe. “Dave you’re killing me here.” He managed to get out. He put him down and Ms. Maryam seemed to come out of nowhere.

“Terezi! I thought you were with the others for fucks sake!” She lifted her over her shoulder and John could tell where she’d gotten her cursing habit from. The motioned for them to be quiet and to follow her, and she went a different way from the main exit of that area and down a flight of stairs. The little troll looked like he was about to punch Kanaya in the face for carrying her. “Okay,” she said, “you guys go find somewhere to stay, but don’t go back to your home yet, because we don’t know what they’ll do to you if they find out we helped you with your leg. I’m taking Terezi to the safehouse, this attack is the most serious one we’ve had in a long time.”

“So you DO get hit alot? Why?” John headed toward the door a bit.

“Well, we aren’t actually supposed to leave Alternia. But we did, because the ruler is awful. But, she doesn’t want us to go make allies and fight back, shes damned power-crazy, the only reason we’re still here is because we stole some warships to fight back here and make a base. Enough of that, go. Go or your head’s going to be the part of you that’s missing.”

“But where do we go then?!” John replied as they left and her and Terezi proceeded to climb a ladder to what seemed to be an upper level.

“Come on John, just go.” Dave’s voice was a bit shaky, he must have been really worried about John. They left running away from the facility not knowing where the hell they were. They were going to be driven to a bus stop back because the location was still disclosed, but that didn’t really matter now. The sun burned his eyes, he’d been inside for a good week and a half. “Uhmm…” Dave paused , he didn’t have any clue where to go either. They rushed over the gravely parking lot and over the under-watered lawn to the rather large trees and overly tall buildings seeming to surround it. There was a really big black fence separating them from the way off out into the normal city roads. Dave backed up a  bit and John could tell he was going to jump it.

“Be Dave careful you don’t want you leg to give-” But Dave sprinted past and leaped up far enough to grab the top and hop over almost effortlessly. Damn he must have done that a lot as a kid, which wasn’t surprising. John on the other hand, being as unathletic as he was, climbed the damn thing after several laborious attempts while refusing to let Dave get back over and help him up. Once they were over it they sort of jogged outwards to the sound of actual traffic and not gunfire. Both of them had sort of calmed down a bit after they started seeing normal people. John realized they must look like shit because Dave was still in hospital pants and a jacket, and John had been wearing the same outfit for a week. “Hey Dave I’ve got like fifty bucks lets get some clothes and food. I think I see a Taco Bell down the road.”

“Where the hell did you get that?” Dave didn’t actually sound surprised, more or less like he was trying to keep the conversation.

“Food money, Rose gave it to me ‘cause she knows I never have spare cash.”

“What a cute thing for your ex to do. Are you sure there still isn’t a thing between you two?” Dave chuckled a little as the walked down a way into what John thought looked pretty much like a thrift store.

“It’s full of suits. God fucking damn.” And it was, but they were really cheap. They went and got the most casual looking ones and put their dirty hospital-like clothes in Johns backpack. Dave stuck a pair of aviators into the purchase before John noticed, and excitedly wore them, having missed his old broken ones. The cashier was nice and gave them both ties to go with their outfits, she probably thought they were homeless. They headed out and off to where the Taco Bell was, and ordered two $5 buck boxes and were left with approximately thirty bucks, and noted by John. Dave recounted thirty two, but didn’t say anything. Once they were done they sat down at a bench across the street.

“Well where are we going to go?” Said John, they were both bored as hell, but didn’t want to run into those CIA beauty pageant trolls.

“Hell if I know.” Dave looked up and stared off into the sky, while John could help staring at him. Dave looked back at him and they made that awkward eye-contact for a moment and John tried to cough a bit to lessen his embarrassment. Dave wasn’t stupid. He stared at John until he looked back at him, and he leaned forward and grabbed John’s hand without looking away. John could feel his heart skipping beats and felt like his feet were embedded in concrete. He leaned in, and kissed him.

Everything was still and perfect for that brief moment. Then the shouting started. John and him both jerked back in surprise and they heard a shot fired from down the street. There were a few trolls running toward them, guns in hand. Dave grasped John’s wrist and pulled him up before he had time to react. Before he knew it they were turning off into an alley running at top sprint in the other direction.

“John okay you know I’ve been in some shit so I’ll tell ya the plan.” He hissed through his teeth.

“Okay got ya.” John looked back as they heard the racket coming nearer.

“Follow me. Don’t stop. Stay cool.” He smirked and then took off again. They ran down the alley further but got faced with a dead end. “Fucking shit!” He grabbed his hair tightly and turned around. “Fucking shit okay we have to book it around.” Dave sort of pulled John by his shirt not regarding John's complaints about being a full enough grown and able man. Before he could even blink they were back at the entrance and straining their muscles to run to a different area. John turned back briefly to see a couple of them were reloading their guns, and looking straight at them.  

“Faster, Dave! They see us!” And that probably was the one and only time John had ran faster than Dave and directed where they should go. He turned right behind a Chevron and back left onto the street parallel to it. They jogged across the street in that weird half-conscious half-trying to be cool kind of way. They pulled into a musky place with loud, rhythmic music as the overhead sky slowly faded into the light purples and pinks of evening. It took a while to adjust to the low lighting but hey, they blended in. Everyone was wearing suits and dresses, and it seemed like an odd barely-living old fancy dance place.

“John.” Dave stated out of the blue. “Why did you take us in to a swing club.” He walked oddly over to the punch table. A few couples were wildly gliding across the floor near them and swing music was blasting almost too loudly for the speakers to handle.

“I don’t know I just saw suits and y’know- wait is your leg okay I completely forgot for a second oh my God I’m sorry.” But Dave turned around on his heel quickly and looked him in the eye and swept his hair back into place with his hand.

“It’s fine. It’s great and I feel great.” He looked down for a minute and then raised his empty plastic cup toward him. “John Egbert, I would like to ask you if you’d do me the favor of being my boyfriend.” John blushed so much he was a living strawberry. But will all the adrenaline from running away he found a new spirit in him, and grabbed Dave and kissed him, hard. John finally drew back and Dave had to really collect himself after his surprise.

“I’m going to take that as a yes.” He smirked but you could tell that he was also blood red too. He coughed a bit too forced, “Wanna, wanna [dance I guess](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqSbIr74D7M)?” His voice was a bit soft and quieter and he couldn’t stop from having a beaming smile plastered on his face.

“Ofcourse.” And with that Dave found his old self again and led John back to the floor. He grabbed his waist and lifted him up and around in unison with the few others in the space. They both couldn’t help laughing, partly because they barely knew what they were doing, and partly because of the leftover excitement from kissing. They danced their way around a bit, sort of following what the other people were doing. Then, when they all started the fancy lifting and flinging, Dave heaved John quickly up right over his shoulder. For a second John thought he’d drop him, but he really felt like he was flying.

He let out a girly screech and giggle and they continued spinning for the next two songs.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for nothing being italicized!!! It didn't transfer that when I copied it into here D: D:


End file.
